1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to graphical user interfaces for managing annotations linked to electronic documents, and more particularly, to methods for sequenced document annotations.
2. Related Art
Advancements in high speed data communications and computing capabilities have increased the use of remote collaboration for conducting business. While real-time collaboration using videoconferencing and the like are gaining popularity, the vast majority of collaboration occurs over e-mail in the exchange of documents incorporating incremental modifications, comments, and the like. A local user may create an initial version of a document, and transmit the same to remotely located colleagues. These remote users may then make their own changes or add comments in the form of annotations appended to the document, and then transmit the new version back to the local user.
Such collaboration may involve the exchange of documents generated with word processing applications, desktop publishing applications, illustration/graphical image manipulation applications, Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications, and so forth. As utilized herein, the term “document” may refer to data produced by any of the aforementioned software applications. Furthermore, the term “content” may refer to data particular to the software application that generated it and stored in the document of the same. Due to the existence of many different computing platforms having a wide variety of operating systems, application programs, and processing and graphic display capabilities, it has been recognized by those in the art that a device-independent, resolution-independent file format was necessary to facilitate such exchange. In response to this need, the Portable Document Format (PDF), amongst other competing formats, has been developed.
The PDF standard is a combination of a number of technologies, including a simplified PostScript interpreter subsystem, a font embedding subsystem, and a storage subsystem. As those in the art will recognize, PostScript is a page description language for generating the layout and the graphics of a document. Further, per the requirements of the PDF storage subsystem, all elements of the document, including text, vector graphics, and raster (bitmap) graphics, collectively referred to herein as graphic elements, are encapsulated into a single file. The graphic elements are not encoded to a specific operating system, software application, or hardware, but are designed to be rendered in the same manner regardless of the specificities relating to the system writing or reading such data. The cross-platform capability of PDF aided in its widespread adoption, and is now a de facto document exchange standard. PDF has been released as an open standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ISO/IEC 3200-1:2008. Currently, PDF is utilized to encode a wide variety of document types, including those composed largely of text, and those composed largely of vector and raster graphics. Due to its versatility and universality, files in the PDF format are often preferred over more particularized file formats of specific applications. As such, documents are frequently converted to the PDF format.
A number of useful improvements have been made since the initial releases of PDF readers, writers, and the standard itself. One improvement that is particularly beneficial in a collaborative environment is the support for adding annotations to a base document. For example, a local user creates an initial version of a document, and transmits the same to distant colleagues. Thereafter, these remote users add their comments as annotations, and transmit the newly annotated versions of the document back to the local user for further revisions. Such annotation features are useful in a wide variety of collaborative settings, such as between a client and a service provider, within a corporate hierarchy, and so forth. It is noted that PDF is not the only document format incorporating collaboration features, and files generated by word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively, all from Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., also include the feature of adding annotations and tracking revisions.
From the user interface perspective, PDF documents are typically rendered as a static, graphical image, in which individual elements thereof such as text, pictures, and other elements are not editable. The aforementioned annotations are graphically overlaid or “placed” on the underlying document, with placement being precisely controlled by the user. Thus, the functionality is similar to graphic illustration/design and image manipulation applications where various objects can be positioned on a document canvas by navigating a cursor to a desired location and providing a subsequent input to make placement permanent. Prior to positioning the cursor, the object to be placed, such as a geometric primitive, a text box, or the like, is selected.
During the course of a typical workflow involving these types of applications, whether PDF annotation, graphic design, or image manipulation, numerous objects may be placed on the underlying document. In many cases, the same objects are reused in many different parts of the document, and hence have identical visual appearances. For example, an engineering drawing for a building may require multiple electrical outlets that may each be depicted with a common symbol placed at selected locations.
The use of identical graphics, however, notwithstanding its purpose in depicting identical elements, may result in confusion stemming from an inability to reference any particular one. Some graphical objects can include an editable text field within which additional descriptors may be inserted, and it is oftentimes desirable to sequence or associate a number to the graphics. Conventionally, if the text field of the graphical objects is to have a unique value, each one must be individually edited. Although multiple objects can be edited at once, the modifiable features are those that are common amongst the selected objects. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved method for managing annotations, and for sequenced document annotation in particular.